There’s an area on the central California coast known as the Irish Hills — steep and green and traversed by winding single-track roads. Ascending through the oak-dotted canyons and emerging onto the grassy heights feels like stepping back in time. I encountered this place through a guidebook to back roads published in the 1980s and long out of print. Now, the Bureau of Land Management is planning to drill and frack around 850,000 acres across central California, including 76 acres in the Irish Hills. Other nearby parcels open for drilling under this plan include a 5-acre site directly across the street from a middle school; 1,222 acres within the boundaries of a popular coastal state park; and one parcel straddling a wild and scenic river that is critical habitat for endangered steelhead.
While I was writing this, the Trump administration declared Sable Offshore Corporation exempt from state laws that have inhibited its push to restart three oil platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel along with the degenerate pipeline responsible for the 2015 Refugio oil spill. Sable has been trying to restart operations ever since it purchased this aging infrastructure from ExxonMobil in 2024. Several of the required state permits are still pending or are wrapped up in litigation, but Sable started pumping oil through the pipeline anyway under “emergency orders” from the Department of Energy.
This is but a sampling of the threats this administration poses to my small corner of the West. No doubt you have your own list. The attacks on public lands from this administration have been endless, ruthless and unscrupulously focused on profit above all else. I think of the communities across the region that have been fighting the oil and gas industry for decades over the damage it has inflicted on ecosystems, infrastructure and public health, and of how, during his recent presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised oil executives that if they helped elect him, he would scrap environmental rules. Today, the industry is enjoying increased access to public lands and fewer regulations — along with a veritable windfall due to the war with Iran.
This issue’s cover story focuses on the damage done to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem by budget cuts and layoffs from the administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The loss of jobs is sobering. And the disruption to long-term scientific research while the Western U.S. is being blasted by climate change is a huge blow to anyone working to mitigate the damage. Defunding research on the impacts of climate change is nothing more than a government-led coverup of the irreparable harm the oil and gas industry is doing to the region, and the world. History will judge these executives and statesmen harshly for stalling the rush toward renewable energy while they sacrifice people and places at the altar of profit above all else.
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This article appeared in the April 2026 print edition of the magazine with the headline “The altar of profit.”
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